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Unfortunately Ms Estrada’s grasp of the operatic world appeared a little sketchy.

On Tuesday in a highly emotional court appearance, in which her spending needs came under the spotlight, Ms Estrada - when asked what was the last opera she had seen - replied: “The Nutcracker.”

Sadly, as every aficionado knows, The Nutcracker is in fact a ballet.

I was a top, international model. I have lived this life. This is what I am accustomed toChristina Estrada

Ms Estrada, 54, a former supermodel who posed for the Pirelli calendar, is demanding £196 million in compensation for her 13-year marriage to Dr Walid Juffali, a Saudi billionaire.

In a detailed list of her spending needs disclosed in the High Court yesterday, Ms Estrada had said she required £160 a day for entertainment for 76 days while on holiday, giving as her example the price of tickets to see La Traviata at the Paris Opera.

“I haven’t been to Paris for the opera in a while,” admitted Ms Estrada. Then asked when she last went to the opera in London, she answered: “I think the Nutcracker.”

The divorce case threatens to be the most expensive - and perhaps most acrimonious - in British legal history.

Ms Estrada broke down in the witness box after telling the court how she had received a call the previous night from her teenage daughter in Zurich who said: “Mummy, you are going to make me a poor girl.”

Ms Estrada has rejected an offer from her former husband which would give her £37 million in cash and assets to live on.

She told Mrs Justice Roberts on her first day of cross-examination that the offer was not enough to enable her to rebuild her “ultra-wealthy” lifestyle after her divorce.

Model Christina Estrada pictured in London earlier this yearCredit:
David M. Benett/Getty

“I am Christina Estrada. I was a top international model. I have lived this life. This is what I am accustomed to,” she told the court.

She later claimed she was filing this divorce to “stand up for women” and insisted that although her lifestyle was perceived as “extraordinary, wonderful, magical”, that it was a “hard life full of responsibilities”.

Christina Estrada outside the High Court in London on MondayCredit:
Paul Grover for The Telegraph

Among her spending needs, disclosed yesterday, was £55,000 a year for shoes; £28,000 for Wimbledon tickets; £78,000 to buy two new watches every year; and £10,000 to attend Sir Elton John’s annual white tie ball.

Dr Juffali, 60, who has terminal cancer and is too ill to give evidence in court, had previously failed in his attempt to have the case thrown out on the grounds he had diplomatic immunity because of his unlikely official position as St Lucia’s representative to the International Maritime Organisation.

The divorce was sparked by Dr Juffali’s decision in 2012 to marry a 25-year-old Lebanese television presenter when he was still married to Miss Estrada.

The marriage was permissible under Saudi Arabian law. Frances Hughes, solicitor for Ms Estrada, said in a statement issued on Tuesday night: “The tactics deployed by Dr Juffali’s legal team have the sole aim of publicly humiliating Ms Estrada, whose claim for £196m represents a tiny proportion of his wealth and a very significant downgrade on the standard of living to which she and her daughter became accustomed to during the marriage.”